Guerilla artists install LED-lit micro-landscapes in Madrid

Urban artists operating under the name Luzinterruptus have
created a series of guerrilla landscapes complete with LED lighting
and tiny animal figurines and installed them around the cities of
Madrid and Barcelona.

The project, entitled "Implanted Nature", saw the creation of
miniature landscapes from little hardy plants placed in cracks in
the pavement and walls. These were first of all filled with soil
and a rooting agent before being planted with cuttings. Added to
the plants were a flock of small plastic animals including horses,
sheep and cows and LED lighting.

They were then covered by small portable domed "greenhouses" which protect them from pollution and heavy rain. Fifty of the tiny green spaces were
installed over five hours in one night in early May -- in the
harshest and greyest areas of the city centre. The group was
responding to the lack of green spaces in the centre of
Madrid.

A representative from the anonymous group told Wired.co.uk: "We
created these tiny landscapes to catch people's attention, about
the lack of vegetation in cities like Madrid. We also wanted to
make a tribute to the weeds we like so much, because they strive to
grow spontaneously in the most inhospitable places."

They hope that some of the plants will have rooted in the cracks
they were left in. As for the plastic animals? "You don't see many
animals -- apart from cats, dogs and
pigeons -- in cities like Madrid or Barcelona. We wanted to
criticise the lack of animals in urban life in a tongue-in-cheek
way."

Luzinterruptus is an anonymous artistic group, which carries out
urban interventions in public spaces using light. They have a track
record of leaving LEDs throughout the city
so that other people can find them and turn them off. The light is
intended to focus people's attention on problems in the city that
sometimes go unnoticed by authorities and citizens.

Their artworks tend to be short lived -- it often takes less than
an hour before a wily Madrileno takes them home.